Thursday 10 September 2009

okkervil river @ oran mor, 9th september

another live review up at the skinny, this time of the splendid okkervil river:



Okkervil River are good to their UK fans, making the trip to our shores at the drop of a hat these days. Tonight there’s no new record to promote and (presumably) no outstanding label obligation to fulfil, yet here they are, back in Òran Mór for the second time in ten months, and I’m presumably not the only wide-eyed audience member who’d happily make it an even more frequent arrangement. Highlights are bountiful, with Our Life Is Not A Movie Or Maybe the possible pinnacle - live, its quiet bits are quieter, its loud bits louder, and its distortion bleeds even more profusely. Elsewhere, the opening of A Stone scythes conversations into reverential silence, before the Beach Boys-channelling John Allyn Smith Sails reignites the room. “I aint coming back again,” Will Sheff sings in a closing Westfall, but it’s safe to call his bluff on this one.

4/5 stars

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